Official Report: search what was said in Parliament
The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
The Official Report search offers lots of different ways to find the information you’re looking for. The search is used as a professional tool by researchers and third-party organisations. It is also used by members of the public who may have less parliamentary awareness. This means it needs to provide the ability to run complex searches, and the ability to browse reports or perform a simple keyword search.
Searching by different views
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
- Report: this is the whole Official Report for a particular meeting of a committee or Parliament
- Item of business: this is each individual agenda item in an Official Report. For example, Portfolio Questions would be the item of business in a Meeting of the Parliament report
- Contribution: this is each time someone has made a spoken contribution to a meeting.
Depending on the kind of search you want to do, one of these views will be the best option. The default view is to show the report for each meeting of Parliament or a committee. For a simple keyword search, the results will be shown by item of business.
Search by MSP
When you choose to search by a particular MSP, the results returned will show each spoken contribution in Parliament or a committee, ordered by date with the most recent contributions first. This will usually return a lot of results, but you can refine your search by keyword, date and/or by meeting (committee or Chamber business).
We’ve chosen to display the entirety of each MSP’s contribution in the search results. This is intended to reduce the number of times that users need to click into an actual report to get the information that they’re looking for, but in some cases it can lead to very short contributions (“Yes.”) or very long ones (Ministerial statements, for example.) We’ll keep this under review and get feedback from users on whether this approach best meets their needs.
Searching by keyword
There are two types of keyword search:
- A keyword search without quotation marks will look for every instance of each word used and rank the results by frequency and proximity. It will also include variants of the keywords using “porter stemming”. This is when the search looks for the “stem” of a word regardless of its ending. So, for example, a search for [salmon farm] will return each instance of “salmon” and each instance of “farm” as well as potentially including results for “farms”, “farmed” and “farming”.
- A keyword search with quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase used. So, for example, a search for “salmon farm” in quotation marks will only return instances of that exact phrase.
Combining search filters
If you select an MSP’s name from the dropdown menu, and add a phrase in quotation marks to the keyword field, then the search will return only examples of when the MSP said those exact words. You can further refine this search by adding a date range or selecting a particular committee or Meeting of the Parliament.
More complex keyword searches
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
- a search for “salmon farm” AND “Loch Lomond” will return only results which include both exact phrases
- a search for “salmon farm” NOT “Loch Lomond” will return results for “salmon farm” but exclude results which also include “Loch Lomond”
- a search for “salmon farm” OR “Loch Lomond” will return all results for “salmon farm” and all results for “Loch Lomond” regardless of whether they appear together
Searching by date
There are two ways of searching by date.
You can either use the Start date and End date options to run a search across a particular date range. For example, you may know that a particular subject was discussed at some point in the last few weeks and choose a date range to reflect that.
Alternatively, you can use one of the pre-defined date ranges under “Select a time period”. These are:
- Current session (all Official Reports since the current sessions started)
- Last 6 months
- Last 12 months
- each of the previous sessions of Parliament. (Selecting the information icon above the “Select a time period” menu will give you the exact dates for each session.)
- All sessions
- You can also choose to select a custom date range, although adding a Start or End date will mean the search automatically defaults to this option.
If you search by an individual session, the list of MSPs and committees will automatically update to show only the MSPs and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of MSPs and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of MSPs and committees will update to show the information that was current at that time.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
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Displaying 1523 contributions
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Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Monica Lennon
I am keen to go back to the point about equalities, but I will bring in Dr Fuller first.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Monica Lennon
Thank you. The disadvantage of being the last member to ask questions is that, as I am being told, I only have about two minutes left. Stuart Hay was nodding, but I want to ask a supplementary question, so perhaps he will also comment briefly on that.
Gavin Thomson raised the issue of inequality and Dr Fuller added his comments on that. I am aware of some research by the Woodland Trust that looks at tree equity. I do not need to rehearse to you all the benefits of trees and vegetation, but the Woodland Trust found that the most deprived areas coincide with areas where there is the least tree cover and vegetation. I am keen to hear, in a couple of words, what should be done to tackle the link between deprived areas, lack of access to nature and air pollution. I will bring in Stuart Hay first, and then Craig McLaren.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Monica Lennon
We are not allowed.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Monica Lennon
Shauna Clarke made a serious statement about a workforce crisis in the environmental health profession. I am keen to hear a bit more about that. Is that to do with attracting people in at undergraduate level? Is it about retaining staff? Is there something else going on?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Air Quality
Meeting date: 18 April 2023
Monica Lennon
How many accredited courses are there in Scotland? I think that there are two planning schools now. What is the situation for environmental health?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Subordinate Legislation
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Monica Lennon
I take it that the Scottish Government will continue to engage with industry and stakeholders on that point.
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Monica Lennon
My colleague Liam Kerr mentioned the CCC report—witnesses did, too—and I want to come back to that report on delivering a reliable, decarbonised power system. The report suggests that a step change in the delivery of transmission infrastructure is necessary in order to meet both UK and Scottish Government targets for renewable generation. I want to explore in more detail what you see as the main practical constraints that Ofgem faces. You have mentioned a few examples already, but what are the main challenges? Can you give us more clarity about what needs to be put in place to support such an increase in deployment, which everyone wants to see?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Monica Lennon
Does Jack want to add anything?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Electricity Infrastructure Inquiry
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Monica Lennon
You mentioned a couple of things—planning and consents and the network companies themselves and procurement—as being the issues. I am trying to understand those so-called blockers and how we can unblock these systems. What is the issue? Is it a lack of people? Is it a personnel issue? Is it a skills issue? Has Ofgem done any work to look at the skills mix across the sector? I am just trying to understand it when people say that these are the things that are slowing things down. Are you looking for less regulation, or is there something in there about the number of people and the skills that they have?
Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee
Deposit Return Scheme
Meeting date: 28 March 2023
Monica Lennon
Can I just interrupt you there? First, I thank your customer service team, which clearly has a busy and challenging job to do.
The small businesses that we are talking about are heavily invested in their local communities, in their workforces and in securing people’s jobs and growing their businesses; they are also thinking about net zero and sustainability. They are not shy about picking up the phone to or emailing MSPs and asking people to come out. How many times do they have to phone and ask the question before they get an answer? Also, is it right to pass them to SEPA? Is there an opportunity to get SEPA, Circularity Scotland and others involved in the same room, given that the problem seems to be that people are getting passed from pillar to post?
